Part 1: Introduction

So with the semi-recent thread on the possibility of a Star Control sequel, I figured it would be prudent to show you guys exactly why this game deserves a sequel.

First off, what's Star Control 2? For many, it is considered the pinnacle of gaming. For most, it is considered an excellent, excellent game, combining aspects of the RPG (sorta), adventure, and action genres into one beautifully bound package. The game was released as an open source project in 2002, and can be downloaded here. Yes, it's completely free, and completely awesome. If you are going to play it, I suggest looking away, because, well, it's a Let's Play thread.

The basic gist of the game is that you need to go around the galaxy, contact alien races, harvest minerals, and save the galaxy. Not that enticing, I know, but there's a lot more to it, as I'll show. The real strength of the game comes from the actual aliens, with some very well written (and oftentimes humorous) dialogue. They're just so...fun. You're also losing a layer of awesome by not listening to the music. My favorite picks are the Yehat theme and Quasispace, personally.

Why isn't this game more popular? Well, it's old, for one, and as such, it doesn't appeal to those whose measure of fun correlates to how much they're punishing their computers. The graphics are very, very simple, but so are both Master of Orions, Civ 2, and a slew of other old school immortals. And, of course, being old means being forgotten about quite quickly, since us old fogeys have played the game to death and the new generation aren't really exposed to it because they haven't learned to listen to their damn elders.

The other reasons this game isn't exactly the most popular is because it's not really linear and you're generally not given a direction. You pretty much have to explore the galaxy on your own, find everything, and figure out what needs to get where. Unfortunately, as enticing as this may seem, A) resources are technically finite until way way way later in the game, and B) there's an unspoken time limit in the game. It's a hell of a curve and people hate redoing things, because you probably can't beat the game your first try (unless you FAQ it or something). Ship combat is a bit of a learning curve as well, considering there's a slew of ships available, each with their own attacks and specials, some of which aren't that obvious.

Why only Star Control 2? Well, Star Control 1, from what I recall, was pretty much just the space combat portion of Star Control 2. And since Star Control 2 was the last game in the series, I repeat, the last game in the series, that's why you need to help Toys for Bob make that sequel.

Now that I've made you feel the weight of time, let's get to the nitty gritty nostalgia. Welcome to the world (galaxy?) of Star Control 2.

Also, as most of the screenshots are the same shot, but with changing text, I'm just gonna write what the game says in italics). The spaces are a change in text. I tried to cohesively write it together, but I guess it's hard to parse dramatic pause.

There were many great battles...

Earth and her partners in the Alliance of Free Stars...

Against the evil Ur-Quan and its Hierarchy of Battle Thralls.

...and the Ur-Quan were winning...

Meanwhile, on the edge of the known frontier, an amazing discovery was made...

far beneath the surface of an unexplored alien world...

A huge underground city...

Who vanished a thousand years ago.

Isolating the planet, stranding the scientists a hundred light years away from Earth.

They waited hopefully for a rescue vessel...

which never came.

20 years have passed...

We, the survivors of the research mission have colonized this world.

We continued our investigation of the underground city...

And we have discovered its purpose...

It is a factory.

A factory for building starships!

But there aren't enough materials to make a complete vessel.

We can only finish the skeleton of one starship.

But that must be enough-

Because YOU must captain the vessel...

And return to Earth!

Find out what has happened over these many years...

Tell Earth of our plight!

And if the war with the Ur-Quan still rages...

Fight for Earth and the Alliance, as well as you can...

And we get dumped in the middle of a sea of stars. At least they gave us the benefit of familiarity, but that'll change soon enough.

So as per most Let's Play threads, there're options to name stuff, and in our case that's the Captain and the ship itself. My defaults are going to be Brannigan and Nimbus, respectively.

I'll also let you guys vote on how you want me to update. The general Let's Play threads I've read either take a minimalistic approach with commentary/information or a more creative, narrative style, keeping in mind the latter will probably make for slower updates (and might detract from the quality of the game's writing, I dunno).

I'm going to also say finals are coming up (perfect time for a let's play!), so expect a bit of a slow start.

Enjoy the game!